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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Three Low Cost Ultrabooks to Consider

An Ultrabook is slim Intel powered laptop with either SSD storage or an SSD cache drive to allow for instant wake from sleep. When the first models came out in the Philippine in October 2011, they cheaper Ultrabooks were priced at about Php45,000. Now, sixteen months later, Ultrabook prices have gone down by 30%, low enough to make them choices for the mainstream consumer.

Acer Aspire S3-391-33214G52add - Php32,900

A good place to start is Acer's entry level Aspire S3. This 13.3-inch Ultrabook is just 0.68-inches at its thickest point and weighs in a just 3.1 pounds. An Intel Core i3-3217U processor and 4 GB of RAM should provide sufficient power for most users. The laptop also comes with Windows 8, a 500 GB hard drive, 20 GB SSD cache drive, an 2-in-1 card reader, USB 3.0, HDMI out and all the bells and whistles you expect from a current laptop. The battery is a 3280 mAh unit.

Samsung Series 5 NP530U3C-A09PH - Php34,990

An alternative option is the Samsung Series 5 NP530U3C-A09PH. This Ultrabook has specifications almost identical to the Acer Aspire S3-391. It comes with a large 24 GB SSD cache drive, and a 4-in-1 card reader and a full sized Gigabit LAN port. The battery is slightly a smaller 3060 mAh unit.

Between this and the Acer Aspire S3-391, I would think look and feel would be the deciding factor.

Asus Vivobook S400CA-CA006H - Php35,990

Asus has something decidedly different to offer. Asus does not call it an Ultrabook, but with an Intel Core i3-3327U processor, a 500 GB hard drive with a 24 GB SSD cache drive, being just a tad over 0.8-inches in weight and weighing in at about 4-pounds I think we can classify this 14-inch laptop as a Ultrabook. The additional weight and thickness can be understood when you take into consideration the larger screen size, and the edge to edge glass used to protect the touchscreen.

The touchscreen is probably what will decide if this is the one for you.